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Fast Five: Action Shots From 1975 Topps Football

“Fast Five” is meant to be a quick posting of five cards along some kind of theme with a minimum of writing. I’ll freely admit that, given where I’m at this week, it’s either a few “Fast Five” posts or the blog going dark for a week or two. I hope you’ll agree that “Fast Five” is the preferable option.

Today’s post features some of my favorite action shots from 1975 Topps Football, the only football set I’ve ever completed.

Although this is Greg Pruitt’s card, the Steelers’ “Mean Joe” Greene is the one who catches your eye.

The quarterback that Bill Stanfill is about to staple to the turf is the Bills’ Joe Ferguson.

This photo is probably from the same Dolphins-Bills game as the Bill Stanfill card. Assuming it’s from 1974 and in Buffalo, then the game was on September 22 and the Dolphins won 24-16…. and that’s Larry Csonka (#39) watching on the sidelines.

Lawrence McCutcheon tries to evade the Redskins’ Chris Hanburger.

This last card has me mildly intrigued… #25 would seem to be the Colts’ Ray Oldham… but Oldham was a defensive back and Zabel was a linebacker. So why would they be on the field at the same time?

Guesses: 1) Special teams? 2) The photo’s old enough that #25 was somebody other than Oldham 3) The photo’s old enough that it shows Zabel as a tight end, which he was in his 1970 rookie season (but the Eagles jersey doesn’t seem to match what they were wearing in 1970).

For what it’s worth, the Colts did play in Philly in 1974; September 29th and the Eagles won 30-10.

3 thoughts on “Fast Five: Action Shots From 1975 Topps Football”

No clue on the Oldham card, but I bet Commishbob knows. As for the cards… I wish more cards featured action shots like these. I could sit down for hours looking at them. I have very little interest starting at staged posed shots or portraits.

To me it looks like Zabel is blocking on the punt team. You would have most of your defense still in and the punt team usually replaces the linemen with faster but still big players that can get downfield to cover the punt. And couldn’t agree more with Fuji about the action shots!